The shadows in Overgrowth are now being rendered directly to lightmap textures, which are then read by the object pixel shaders to modulate the direct lighting. The shadows are starting to look pretty decent, but there is a lot left to do to improve efficiency and reduce errors! I can go into detail about how the shadows work when they are all done. We haven't started on the indirect shadows yet, but we should be able to extend this same technique by accumulating shadows from random light sources on the sky hemisphere.

The whaleman is very confused by the new shadows. He thinks his shadow is an enemy, and chases it all over the place, laying waste to our carefully crafted levels.

Thanks to OpethRockr55 for the model!

These last couple months we have been working with a modeler named Pawan. The way we have been doing it is that I have been making some concept art for him which he uses to make the model, normal map and ambient occlusion texture base and then he sends it back so I can finish with the textures. It has worked out really well, and I want to show you some of the results!

A concept for a dog grave marker

The final model ready for export into the game

We showed the concept for the dog grave some time back. It came out a bit fatter than the drawing but I still think it looks pretty good.

We may end up using these as weapons in addition to them being props

I only finished these recently

The dogs do a lot of stone working. I wanted to try and show that by having these tools laying around near half completed stone walls or statues.

These would be used as acessories for rat characters

In the game these should appear very small

I like getting the texture at twice their probable in-game resolution. You never know when you will want something at a higher resolution, and you can always size them down.

So how do you think they turned out?

Hey guys, as you know, we prefer live chat to email (as mentioned in this post). After posting about SMALL TANK last night, our live chat widget went under a lot of stress and when we logged in this morning, we were flooded with queued messages. Here's a few pretty good ones, with the names changed to protect the innocent:

News on Overgrowth shall resume shortly.

As we compared notes with the developers and publishers at GDC, we realized that Overgrowth is just not very marketable. It's a niche fighting game for a small hardcore audience, and takes too many risks in terms of scope, setting, technology, and controversial subject matter. Not only is it a tough sell to the mainstream, but it even doesn't appeal to indie gamers: it's not experimental and artsy enough. For that reason, we've signed on with OnLive, XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, Steam and WiiWare to bring you our new downloadable game:

Small Tank is set in World War 2, but it's still fresh because everything is small and cute! We added amazing, ground-breaking new technology to immerse you in this epic conflict. The bloom effects and brilliant lens flares put the sun right in your eyes: you can actually feel the heatstroke! Customize your special-forces commando to choose between a badass bandana or a helmet! You can even pick your own character voice: seasoned chain-smoker or foul-mouthed hoodlum!

We haven't even mentioned our favorite new feature yet... the cover system! You'll latch onto things so hard you'll think you've bathed in super-glue. Exploit the third-person camera to blindfire with deadly accuracy, and take out wave after wave of identical nazi goon squads. Tired of other games that make you waste precious seconds of your life waiting for your health to regenerate? You'll love our revolutionary new game mechanic: instantaneous health regeneration! You can't even fit in these chibi tanks, but who cares? You don't need armor! Just blast those froggies with the cannon! BLAM! KABOOM! You'll feel almost like you're accomplishing something, but without any effort or skill!

But wait, you say, this doesn't sound very indie anymore! I'm glad you brought that up, because we threw in all sorts of random quirks that should endear us to the indie crowd! From the creepy, staring eyes of our doll-like chibi soldiers to our quirky euphemisms for the axis and allied teams, there's more than enough artsiness to go around!

Don't forget to pick up a copy of Small Tank when it's released in Fall 2009. Small dude, small tank, HUGE ACTION!

Here is what is new in Overgrowth this week. If you are confused what a weekly alpha is, or even what Overgrowth is, please read our fancy FAQ.

We were a little slowed down this past week due to GDC, but we still managed to get work done. Aubrey has been working on more art assets and some new concept art. It's not ready to include yet, but we will add it to the queue of stuff to blog about. We are really excited about Hale's map, which you can see here.

David's shadows that recently caused a stir are not quite ready yet, but you will see more of them soon!

On the code front, here are a few highlights from SVN:

- In the map editor, scrolling up and down navigates the new group hierarchy selection.
- Editor actions are better controlled now
- More abstraction for the animation editor framework
- Fixed decals (Rabbot can now comfortably run through Hale's map)
- Modified shove
- Map editor palettes are hidden in game mode
- Misc bugs

Jo-shadow is in charge of organizing the community maps and has done a great job in his thread in the Secret Preorder Forum.

Thanks as always for all the support! See you guys in IRC and the forums.